U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,736 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,744 describe compact banknote reading devices for installation in vending machines, which are housed together with a banknote container in a space-saving manner in the same frame.
It is also known (DE-OS 20 28 649 and DE-PS 29 19 620) to arrange downstream of the checking device a temporary store for the banknotes recognised and accepted by the checking device. With a banknote reader of this kind an instruction can be implemented only when the amount required for the service, which is composed, for example, of several banknotes, is already in the temporary store.
CH-PS 661 603 and the patent specifications mentioned above disclose the arrangement of checking devices that scan the banknotes using an optical or magnetic process, and means for transporting the banknotes. The banknotes are stacked in, for example, money cassettes known from CH-PS 658 736, which are secured against theft of the banknotes. A stacking device is disclosed in Research Disclosure, December 1984, RD 24820.
The devices described in those patent specifications have the disadvantage that each of the designs described is tailored to the needs of a specific customer, requires a relatively large amount of space and does not permit simple changes to the construction.
The problem underlying the invention is to provide an inexpensive banknote reader that does not have those disadvantages but can easily be adapted to customer-specific requirements and is maintenance-friendly.
The invention provides a banknote handling device wherein one or more components are readily exchangeable modules so as to facilitate mounting of the device in multiple orientations.